


Song of Innocence

by thylabucky



Series: Faust [1]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Childhood Friends to Lovers, Explicit Sexual Content, Friends to Lovers, In later chapters - Freeform, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pre-DMC3, Sad Ending, Slow Burn, Trans Male Character, because we all know why, fortuna shenanigans, prob not too in depth but a warning none the less, the faust series, written by a trans man
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 20:50:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20459267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thylabucky/pseuds/thylabucky
Summary: Never seek to tell thy loveLove that never told can be;For the gentle wind does moveSilently, invisibly.I told my love, I told my love,I told her all my heart,Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears--Ah, she doth depart.William Blake





	Song of Innocence

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to the first part of my trashy dmc series!
> 
> a couple things before we start:
> 
> \- i tried to stick to the lore as much as possible and fit in the things that made logical sense, but there are a lot of gaps in the dmc timeline and a ton of things that DON'T make sense/we don't know if they're considered canon. a lot of this is my own personal ideas and thoughts about how things went down, all edited to fit the story i want to tell  
\- I am a full-time college student! i say this simply because posts of new chapters may be scarce! but don't be afraid to bug me about new chapters over at my twitter, joobsmoobfroobs. i also talk a lot about the work in progress of this series AND how much i love vergil (answer: it's a lot).  
\- if literally anyone is good at summaries and chapter names please dm me i am SUFFERING trying to think of them  
\- this is mostly made for me, i'm not going to lie. it's very self-indulgent. ive been working on faust for a while now a just. love him an awful lot so i decided to force myself to write about him. and no one has really written much with vergil/trans character so i decided to be the first and see if anyone else was as interested in that as me 
> 
> and one last thing: i'd like to thank all my friends who've been supportive and let me nerd about faust. this whole ass mess wouldn't be here without you guys :>

"What's your name?" 

Startled by the sudden noise, the small brunette, hidden away from plain sight, almost yelped. The boy who had called to him, covered by a cloak, was sitting on a cornerstone. Book in hand, this proper young boy was seemingly distracted from the outside world. The little brunette vagabond had expected this, as he usually hid in the crook of the alleyways to watch him over the shoulder, hoping to one day make sense of the words in the many books he caught him reading.

"You may as well come out. I know you're there," the bookish boy spoke again, not looking up from the withered pages at his fingertips.

The dirt-covered ragamuffin hesitated. He considered running away, same as he always did when someone noticed him spying. But despite his better judgment, he came out of his hideaway with an awkward shove, walked up to the resting boy, and stared at his feet. Snapping his book shut, the other boy rose, pulling the hood away from his face to reveal a head of silver-white hair and piercing blue eyes.

"I know you've been following me. You're not very good at this, are you?" he mused, and the shorter brunette in front of him noted how proper his voice was. It reminded the little boy of a distant memory, one he couldn't quite grasp. Just as it came, the blue-eyed boy's voice snapped him back into his current place.

"My name's Vergil," the taller boy said in that same voice, putting out a hand to his shorter peer. The wordless, messy child blinked for a moment, staring at the gesture, before he grabbed Vergil's hand in an awkward sort of way. The pale boy raised a brow, but he still shook the hand, just as he was taught to do. Immediately, the shorter of the two yanked his hand away and gave the taller a dirty look. Shocked, Vergil backed away a bit. He watched the dirty child for a moment before he huffed out a sigh, composing himself once again.

"Don't you have a name? Everybody has a name," the proper little boy folded his arms, head tilting to the side. Rationally, the mop-haired boy knew that was true. He'd heard many names in his journeys through alleyways. Despite this knowledge, he could not place his own name. He'd pondered how one gets a name, where he could perhaps find it. Maybe he lost it, just as he lost a loaf of bread a few days ago. The baker was particularly angry with him when he lost the bread, and he'd realized by the impatient sort of look from his taller counterpart that he would rather not be yelled at another time today. The vagabond looked around for something, anything, until he got an idea. Before Vergil could back away, the shorter boy grabbed the coat concealing that greenish book, pulled it out by the dusty cover, and pointed to the title. Vergil snatched it back harshly, glaring at the boy in front of him as he once again backed away. Checking the cover, Vergil looked back to the short brunette.

"Faust? Your name is Faust?" 

The shorter boy nodded confidently, despite his fearful nature when regarding grumpy humans. He knew, from what a few other street rats had told him, that books had names, just as humans. Hopefully, this book would not mind him borrowing his name today. Vergil, looking down at the child below him, seemed skeptical for a moment. This only caused "Faust" more panic, before Vergil eventually sighed and shoved his book back into his jacket pocket. It took everything the street rat not to sharply let out the breath he had been holding.

"Alright, Faust," Vergil said in a decided kind of tone, arms folded. Pulling up his hood again, he turned. "Come with me."

Stunned, the mute child blinked for a moment. Did he do something right? Most people forced him away when they gave him those kinds of angry glares. For once, perhaps his instincts were right about this strange boy he'd been following around this boring old town. Despite all rational thought, "Faust" (a name he quite liked, as he ran it over a few times in his head) quickly picked up his feet and followed after Vergil. 

***

Sinking out of his childish daydream, Faust found himself staring up at Vergil. Vergil, a few steps ahead, had his nose in a book yet again.

After a moment of perhaps too-long silent staring, Faust huffed. 

"How do you not trip when you do that?" he grumbled, shifting the pack on his back. Faust thought it fitting, in a way, that their journey began with Vergil and his books, and now here they were, ten years later, and the formal idiot still had his nose in old poetry books. With a slight grin, Vergil looked back to Faust and paged the book. 

"Magic," he said with that usually cocky voice, putting the book behind his back. Expectedly, that tone triggered the usual gut feeling Faust always got when he heard it.

"Oh shove off," Faust smirked, choosing to actually shove him. It was gentler to denote the lightheartedness of the gesture, but it still made the skinnier demon jostle a bit. Vergil rolled his eyes, probably to hold back a comment about how pushing him around just meant he was right, before he nudged Faust with an elbow himself.

"I would figure you'd know that, mage," Vergil spoke. 

"And you should know I'm not technically a mage, demon spawn," Faust ribbed back, pointing at Vergil accusingly as he did. His confident smirk never left his face, even when Vergil matched it with his own.

As Faust had expected, Vergil simply shook his head and pretended to ignore Faust. Typical.

In the moment, Faust was reminded how good it felt to know they could still joke around like dumb kids, despite how tense things had been lately. Well, perhaps lately is a large underestimate. Their lives had always been running from one hiding spot to another, getting their too-small hands soaked with demon blood along the journey. Recently had been no different, only tripled with their collective choice to start sticking their proverbial noses in the demon's ire.

Faust liked to believe he was the more rational of the two. He would much prefer sticking to his usual games of tricking humans out of money and destroying a few demon hordes for fun. But, Vergil had different ideas. And in a way, Faust understood. At their dawning adulthood, Vergil wasn't satisfied with how little they knew about the person that threw them both together some odd ten years ago. Mundus, and more pressingly for Vergil, Mundus' enemy, Sparda. After months of what Faust had referred to as "dicking around in the world's most boring places", they'd found a lead inside the walls of one of the most elusive islands this side of the ocean: Fortuna. It took a lot of sneaking, stealing, and bartering (mostly on Faust's part,) but they finally found themselves nearing the gates into town themselves. And contrary to his previous protests from earlier on this sordid journey, Faust found himself excited about what adventure might lie behind the walls. Vergil had mentioned something about Fortuna being deeply ancient, but that only meant more things to mess within Faust's book. 

But on the long walk to the gated city, Faust had been fading in and out of daydreams and thought. As ironic as it was, Faust was not very superstitious. He didn't believe in the "auras" he read about in his books of magic, but even he knew something was wrong. The moment he stepped onto this rock in the middle of no where, he felt his stomach drop and his head begin to flash a thousand different "auras". Not all of these rational warnings, but the young mage was not one to ignore those kinds of signs when they came. Just thinking about it, his chest began to tighten, his expression souring as he glared at the ground beneath his feet.

"What's on your mind?" Vergil spoke into silence, and it was almost enough to make Faust jump. Sometimes he wished they didn't both have such a sixth sense about one another.

Faust let out a breath, blowing a tuff of his hair away from his face in the process. "Do we have any idea how we're going to even get inside Fortuna? We don't exactly look like the most well-ordered group of vagrants," he started to unpack his thoughts, folding his arms. "Especially not with that," he gestured to the Yamato hidden in Vergil's cloak with a nod of his head. 

Vergil rolled his eyes, more as a sign to Faust that he was tired of his foolish line of questioning than any sort of genuine expression of emotion. "I already told you. I have a plan."

Faust tried to resist the urge to be stubborn right back and promptly failed.

"Ah, yes. Vergil has a plan. That has historically always gone well."

Faust didn't look over at Vergil, but he felt the glare at his side anyway. Once again, he did not relent in his stubbornness.

"I'm just saying, we both seem to attract a certain type. It's always good to have a backup plan."

Another eye roll. Faust mirrored it, folding his arms. The messy haired brunette considered pressing the issue further for a moment, drawing it out as much as he already had in his thoughts, but he relented. Generally, Vergil was right about these sorts of things, and he was beginning to realize it would be better if he just started to follow along with it. Putting his hands up defensively, Faust shook his head.

"Fine, fine. I'll leave it to you."

Vergil let out a hot breath, clearly a little shocked it ended so soon. "Thank you," he said, and Faust thought it sounded genuine enough.

Silence fell.

It was rare they ever really bickered. Perhaps not any more than you'd expect out of two people with their sorts of personalities. But lately, things had been different. A lot more silence, a lot more arguing, a lot more push and shove to get things done. Faust had supposed it came with the kind of pressure they'd both felt themselves under, but he still felt it to be...different than usual. Vergil was tense with him in a way he was unaccustomed to, while somehow more tender than he would expect out of his silent companion. Vergil had always been a bit stand-offish, a bit grumpy, and a bit hard to read. But Faust had been around just long enough to be able to read those fluctuating emotions anyway, however suppressed they might be. Despite, lately those usually reliable emotions seemed to be all over the place, scattered between the two of them. One moment he seemed to be the same awkwardly kind and uptight kid he'd grown up with, the next moment he was cold and distant unlike he'd been before.

Once again, Faust felt his face tighten into a worried kind of glare. With another silent puff of hot air, Faust tried to push his hair back. It fell back in his face anyway.

Whatever...this was, he'd fix it. And if Faust couldn't fix it, maybe finding answers to ten-year-old questions would resolve it all and allow them to go back to the life they had before. Chaotic, messy, but most of all, their own brand of normal. In the end, that's all Faust really wanted. And he'd never failed to get what he'd wanted before, so why start now?

Adjusting his pack of loose spells again, Faust looked over at Vergil with a small smile. Without thought, Faust linked his hand with Vergil's beside him, just narrowly catching his look of surprise. Reminiscent of those same younger days, Faust swung their arms together.

"Come on. We're almost there," Faust smiled, noting the light color coming to Vergil's face. Vergil simply nodded in response, allowing the shorter man to lead him by the hand towards their fateful city.

**Author's Note:**

> if you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to comment or dm me on twitter @ joobsmoobfroobs! <3


End file.
